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Results: 211 - 223 of 223
View Matthew Green Profile
NDP (ON)
How much was the contract for Deloitte for the administration of the settlement, and why was Deloitte selected?
We hear a lot about Deloitte at this committee.
Glenn Purves
View Glenn Purves Profile
Glenn Purves
2020-06-16 19:03
I don't have that information, Mr. Green. We can certainly reach out to our colleagues at CIRNAC and get back to the committee on that, if that's helpful.
View Matthew Green Profile
NDP (ON)
Okay.
As it relates to the sixties scoop settlement, the request of $260 million in the supplementaries, how many people have made a claim as part of this settlement, and when can they expect to be paid?
View Jaime Battiste Profile
Lib. (NS)
Thank you.
Welcome, Minister Miller.
I was pleased to hear that we have an increase of $86 million going to education. My question will about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and funding education for that. I want to quote Murray Sinclair when he said, “While Indigenous children are being mistreated in residential schools by being told they were heathens, savages and pagans and inferior people—that same message is being delivered in the public schools of this country.” :
While on-reserve education is important, we need to invest in capital. I was there this summer when AFN passed a treaty education resolution calling for a 10-year strategy to promote that across Canada. We've seen places like Saskatchewan that have mandated mandatory treaty education.
What is our government doing to address the TRC's calls to action on all of the education pieces? Also, how are we working with indigenous partners to ensure that resources and training are being developed for teachers? How are we working with our provincial counterparts who control education to make sure that every schoolchild in Canada learns about reconciliation, residential schools and inherent and treaty rights?
View Marc Miller Profile
Lib. (QC)
MP Battiste, you raise a very important aspect of the mandate that isn't necessarily written in my mandate letter, which is making sure that non-indigenous Canadians are part of this and educating all of Canada as to the issues that have underpinned and marred the relationship and prevented it, in some ways, from moving forward. Education and communicating to non-indigenous Canadians that this is part of who we are and part of our identity is key.
I want to salute your initiative and your dedication to doing this, even before you were an MP. It is key to moving this forward. If we're only doing it among leadership, we're not exactly succeeding. We may be advancing, but we're not succeeding. It has to be among peoples. That's the main reminder that all of us need to take home.
In terms of funds, I think you'll note that in the 2021 main estimates, the amount for elementary and secondary education was $2 billion. Financially, as I mentioned in my introductory remarks, we've closed the gap in education. It's a very important social determinant of health, and key to closing the educational aspect of the socio-economic gap. With that, the success rates are amazing. There are amazing stories about indigenous children—who should never have been in that situation—in control of their educational system. You highlighted that.
There's a very tainted history, as everyone knows, with the educational system and residential schools for indigenous children. When controlled and administered in a culturally appropriate way that is sensitive to community needs, the outcomes are the same if not better. The experience with the Mi'kmaq is one example—hopefully, one of many.
These are key to who we are and key to whom we believe we are as a nation, but more importantly also as a community, making sure that we don't fail another generation of indigenous children.
I mentioned the financial support. I think it's for all to see in the main estimates. I won't go on further about that, but it's making sure that education is done in the language and is culturally appropriate. It isn't simply something you do on a Friday afternoon when everyone's tired. It's a core part of the education. It's key.
It's key to—what people use as a catchphrase but a very important one—“decolonizing”. It's about realizing what the history of Canada and indigenous peoples is. With that comes power. With that comes confidence and success, in the way that first nations dictate the pace. Obviously, uncertainty comes with that, but that's fine. It's a sign of who we are and how we move that relationship forward.
As well, educating—and you touched on that—non-indigenous Canadians is essential. It's why some of the truth and reconciliation reports touched on private actors like institutions—university institutions—in endorsing language courses. Everyone needs to realize that we're all on the same land, and no one's going anywhere, but if we want to advance the relationship, it has to be done with mutual respect, co-operation and friendship.
View Gord Johns Profile
NDP (BC)
Currently, we know that the government is fighting the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal compensation order in court. It's opposing certification of a class action lawsuit that it previously indicated it wouldn't oppose. The government is also in court with the AFN over child welfare.
When will you call off the lawyers and just get to the table and settle this?
View Carolyn Bennett Profile
Lib. (ON)
Thank you for that question, Gord. In some ways that is my job. It is to get out of court to be able to settle these things at a table.
As we learned with the sixties scoop, even though that was a case won in court, what Chief Marcia Brown really wanted was language, culture and healing—all of those things that courts can't award.
It's so we know that when we get to the table, we're able to provide those additional services and that kind of support for the victims. We hope that we will.... As you know the government is committed to making sure that all children harmed by the system will be compensated. We also want to make sure that all the other things they need to have a secure personal cultural identity will also be in place.
View Jonathan Wilkinson Profile
Lib. (BC)
Thank you very much, Madam Chair and members of the committee. It's certainly a pleasure to be here for the first time as Minister of Environment and Climate Change to provide an update on our progress on climate action and environmental protection and how it is reflected in the supplementary estimates.
I am joined today by Christine Hogan, the deputy minister for Environment and Climate Change Canada; Ron Hallman, president and chief executive officer of Parks Canada Agency; and David McGovern, the president of the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada.
I would like to start by recognizing that this meeting is taking place on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe peoples.
Our world faces a number of very significant environmental challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution of a range of types, but perhaps the most topical issue in the recent days has been plastics pollution. All three are critically important and all three are certainly interrelated. All three are challenges, no doubt, but they all offer opportunities for those countries that move early to address them.
Climate change is the existential threat of our age. The science is clear and overwhelming.
If global emissions continue to rise at their current rate, the world could see at least 3 degrees of warming by 2100.
The implications are very real: a warmer climate will intensify weather extremes, result in sea level rise, and reduce the amount of snow, ice and freshwater.
In this regard, the climate issue is a science issue. It is not a political issue and, quite honestly, it should not be a partisan issue. The climate crisis calls for effective and clear-eyed policies that will measurably reduce Canada's greenhouse gas emissions over the decades to come while promoting clean growth.
Going forward, Canadians understand that economic progress will need to take place in the frame of environmental sustainability. No longer can we think of economic opportunities without also considering environmental impacts. This is increasingly understood in all sectors of our economy. For example, leading money managers and investors, like BlackRock, are making sustainability and climate risk key elements of their investment strategies. Resource companies are committing to a net zero target, as did Canadian steel producers just last week. Others, including Microsoft, have adopted even more ambitious targets.
In the 2019 election, Canadians overwhelmingly demonstrated their concern about climate change. Our government committed to two key climate policies—exceeding our 2030 target of 30% below 2005 levels and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
We have made tremendous progress in addressing greenhouse gas emissions since 2015.
Early in our mandate, we developed the pan-Canadian framework on clean growth and climate change, the first real climate plan this country has ever had. It contains more than 50 different measures, from phasing out coal to major investments in public transit and electric vehicle infrastructure to energy efficiency for buildings and industries. We invested over $3 billion to scale up clean technology, and we put in place a national price on pollution, because there can be no credible plan to fight pollution if polluting is free.
Achieving net zero will require an economic as well as an environmental transformation and the mobilization of significant amounts of private capital. Certainly a key component of any pathway will be a focus on clean technology. Hoping for technology to save us from the hard policy choices that are required to reduce emissions is not a climate plan. However, a thoughtful approach to clean tech must be part of an effective strategy to get to net zero, and in particular to help us decarbonize key sectors of our economy. Clean tech offers enormous economic opportunities for Canada.
We all have a role to play in fighting climate change, and I would point out that, when we work together, we can achieve great things. Take the Montreal protocol for example. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney—a Conservative prime minister—worked with politicians across party lines, the United States, Nordic countries and the United Nations to protect the ozone layer. It was tremendously effective—197 countries signed on and the treaty went down as the most lauded environmental treaty in history.
Achieving our goals will certainly be challenging and will require leadership from every region of this country.
Now, very briefly, I would like to walk you through our updated estimates that account for changes or developments in particular programs or services. Let us start with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
The 2019-20 supplementary estimates (B) for Environment and Climate Change Canada outline $134.9 million in adjustments that relate mostly to the implementation of the framework, which included the climate action incentive fund. The fund applies to jurisdictions where the federal carbon pollution pricing system is in effect so we return the fuel charge to Canadians. The new estimates reflect increases of $9.5 million in voted appropriations and $109.1 million in statutory funding.
To support cleaner and more efficient travel, we have also allocated an additional $5.8 million to Natural Resources Canada for a contribution to the City of Brampton for an electric bus trial.
The estimates also reflect $4.7 million to start federal contributions toward eliminating plastic waste.
Let's now turn to Parks Canada, Madam Chair.
Parks Canada is responsible for protecting our treasured natural legacy for future generations to enjoy, as well as important historic and heritage sites.
Parks Canada Agency's spending has gone up $3.5 million, including $2.7 million to commemorate Indian residential school sites in response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action 79.
The supplementary estimates also seek approval for a vote transfer of $12.9 million from the agency's program expenditures to the agency's new parks account in order to set this money aside and protect it until need for the development of capital infrastructure in the Rouge National Urban Park.
As for the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada, it is requesting two interdepartmental transfers that total $1.8 million for these supplementary estimates (B).
I am going to stop here, Madam Chair.
I hope this summary provides committee members with the insights they were looking for in the supplementary estimates.
I want to assure the members of this committee and all Canadians of our commitment to fighting climate change and protecting our natural environment. We certainly intend to engage Canadians in discussions around these issues every step of the way.
With that, I am very happy to take your questions.
View Charlie Angus Profile
NDP (ON)
Let's talk about that, because in 2014 I asked the government, which was then a Conservative government, for notes regarding the political decision to withhold the 10,000 pages of police evidence of the crimes that were committed against children at St. Anne's residential school. I was not looking for those police documents; I don't have a right to them. I was asking for the emails—for the political decision that went into that act—which should have been covered. It was delayed and delayed, and then the Liberals came in and just said, “No, we're not going to let you see them at all.”
Your predecessor took them on. We spent many years on it. In fact, she threatened to take them to court. They agreed, finally, to give me the documents in three batches. I'll bring them in, if you people want to see them. There were three batches of blacked out documents of every email saying “Hey, Mary, how's it going?”—blacked out—or “Hey, Bob!”—blacked out.
It strikes me that the justice department just waits out.... I mean, we fought this battle over seven years. They were threatened with going to Federal Court and they still blacked out the documents to protect the minister. With your order-making powers, could you have changed that decision? Or do they have that power to defy and not turn over documents that should be within the public realm?
Caroline Maynard
View Caroline Maynard Profile
Caroline Maynard
2020-03-11 16:08
I can order the production of documents, except for the cabinet confidences, but I can also…. Yes, if I make an order that the disclosure should be done or that exemption should not be applied, the onus is on the institution to go to court, not on me to fight the decision.
Results: 211 - 223 of 223 | Page: 15 of 15

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